Java EE 8 Overview

Linda DeMichiel, Java EE 8 Specification Lead, presents an overview of the original proposal for Java EE 8 JSRs and the proposed changes to the Java EE. She details the revised proposal for Java EE 8, which is only a proposal since the expert groups will work on the JSRs. The proposal is to consider in parallel features in Java EE 8 and 9 and not to wait for the release of Java EE 8 to discuss Java EE 9. In this plan, Java EE 9 should have an in-depth focus on cloud and microservices, leveraging the work done in 8.

Linda discusses in more detail the proposal of changes in Java EE 8 here. She explains the rationale for the proposed changes and the technical focus areas in Java EE 8. Part of the proposal is to enable a full reactive programming model in Java EE 9.

More information about the JSRs discussed during these sessions are available online. Here is the list of JSRs:

- JSR 374: JSON Processing 1.1. The goal is to include standards like Json pointer, patch and merge patch.

- JSR 367: JSON Binding 1.0. The goal is to provide mapping between JSON data and Java objects. It provides a standard support to handle JSON media type for JAX-RS.

- JSR 370: RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS 2.1). The goal is to improve server-to-server communication, server-sent events, non-blocking I/O, asynchronous clients with reactive programming, hypermedia API and integration with other JSRs like CDI and other frameworks. The Jersey reference implementation has made good progress but has not yet been approved as a standard.

- JSR 369: JavaTM Servlet 4.0 Specification. The goal is to support for HTTP/2 and compatibility with HTTP 1.1. The early draft review is available.

- JSR 372: the next release of Java Server Faces JSF 2.3. It is a mature technology with some improvements such as better CDI and WebSocket integration, Ajax method invocation and date and time support.

- JSR 375: Java EE Security API 1.0. The goal is to simplify, standardize, and modernize the Security API across the platform. There is a proposal to simplify managing users and groups. Also improvements related to password aliasing, role mapping, authentication and authorization with CDI support. The second renewal ballot is planned in November.